With Changing Winds
by Capsicle Games
Summary: It's been almost a year since Tony was returned to his normal life after a rough encounter with Loki in the frigid cold. The routine had finally managed to restore itself when suddenly the infamous prince of mischief makes an appearance. Now Tony must deal with relationship issues, a bipolar frost giant, and a cold. Oh joy. [Sequel to "A Winter Flight"] eventual frostiron


**A/N: Hello all! This is the sequel to "A Winter Flight" that I've been babbling about excitedly for a while. I suggest you read AWF first so that most of this makes sense, though I think you'll be able to connect the dots if you do not want to. Hopefully this particular fic will run to about 5-15 chapters long. I don't want it to go on too long. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

It was a good tuesday when Tony flopped down next to Pepper to discuss the state of their relationship.

With a glass of scotch already prepared, he passed it to his girlfriend who nearly drained it in minutes. As he refilled the glass, he gave her a sympathetic look, small frown forming on his face. She was really stressed out which was really saying something. Pepper was usually as strong as titanium. She could take almost anything, hell years with Tony was testament to that, but at that moment tears were streaming silently down her cheek. Tony kissed it, hoping it would at least warm her heart.

"This isn't going to work." she finally choked out, breaking their silence. He held her closer.

"Shh," he rasped though he had come to that conclusion himself since _a month ago_.

"We can't keep going like this!" she said.

"I know." Tony said.

"This," she shifted so that her eyes met his. "Has been the third time _this month_. Not to mention how many times they've kidnapped me over this whole year!"

"I know." Tony said.

"And even you are getting taken away."

"I know." he said again.

"We can't stay together, Tony. I really want to be with you," more tears rolled down her face, "But this is too risky. What if all these 'super villains' get tired of just taking us? What if they actually kill us one day?!"

He had no response to this. Tony just leaned back to give her a pained expression. She was right. All year long, they both had been getting kidnapped. It started off with Loki sending Tony to the frozen wasteland full of crazy wolves (then getting nearly strangled over the edge of his balcony), a group of rogue criminals kidnapping Pepper for ransom, Doctor Doom also kidnapping Pepper for ransom, Magneto kidnapping Pepper for random, hell even Hammer kidnapped Pepper for ransom. It was crazy and every time Tony tried to receive help from others, they just shrugged it off. Initially SHIELD and the Avengers were more than happy to help him rescue her or be rescued. But after a while of the whole kidnap-one-of-them game, they backed down. They had more important issues than the quarterly rescue the princess from the tower game.

The fact that it was a normal occurrence pissed Tony off.

He had tried so hard to prevent it. Made new suits, updated JARVIS, had more guards around, yada yada the whole nine yards. All it would do was calm things down for a good couple of weeks before picking back up again. It was ridiculous and Tony was honestly ashamed that he couldn't protect Pepper. He felt like a poor excuse for not being able to keep the one person he loved absolutely safe and comfortable with her life. Of course maybe the task would've been easier if their relationship wasn't common villainy knowledge. She was obviously his weakness which they targeted.

The only way to really keep her safe was to dissociate himself with her. It really hurt.

"We should stop then," he said finally, immediately looking away so that he could not see her hurt expression. "I'm sorry."

"I've already arranged everything." she said solemnly.

Of course she had. Pepper Potts, always a step ahead.

"It's Christmas Eve," Tony began slowly. "Want to still come by tomorrow? Have a little Christmas booze and open gifts?"

Gifts he had bought for her thinking it would still last. Oh well.

"I'll...stop by." Was all she said.

* * *

It was about sundown when Tony came up from his workshop. He had channeled a great deal of his emotions into his work but was now in great need for a drink. He was also itching to call her and plead her to come back. But he would force himself to remember that she was safer without him and they should really make the fact that they weren't together the new common knowledge. It wouldn't be too hard since all the evils prats gossiped nonstop about them.

He sighed and grabbed a random bottle. Without even looking at the label, he drunk straight from the glass and exhaled heavily. That really hit the spot. He knew it would.

"Having some courtship troubles, Stark?" A smooth, low voice startled him. He nearly dropped the bottle and whipped his head around towards the source. It was Loki, standing in front of one of the windows overlooking New York. The villain was facing the sunset, arms folded behind his back and head high. Tony rolled his eyes. Of course of all things that could happen, here was Loki trying to convince him to go turbo the same way a Jehovah's Witness would knock on the door preaching. Lovely.

"Like you would know what that feels like." he said before taking a long drag of what-ever-it-was-in-his-hands.

"You'd be surprised." Loki said almost mourningly, spinning around with his posture deflating. He looked upset, visibly disturbed by something, and Tony did not want to be around him at all. The iron man inched over to his bar and found his bracelets. There was no way in hell he was getting strangled on Christmas Eve!

"What do you want?" Tony shot out directly. "Here to kill me again or do you want me to join your boy band?"

"Neither." He looked offended.

"Then get the hell out of my house," Tony nearly growled.

"Actually," Loki started carefully. "I was wondering if you could provide me with lodging."

"You? Lodging?" he almost chuckled. "Hell no. What makes you think I would possibly do that, Rudolph?"

"We're friends."

"We are _enemies._" Tony said with a serious expression.

"Don't you remember what we have endured together, Stark?" Loki said. "Does that not mean anything to you?"

"You tried to kill me. And then the wolves tried to kill me. Then you tried to kill me again."

"But I used up all my resources to save your life."

"...in order to kill me again." Tony said simply. "Honestly, you don't have much going for your case here."

"I made a mistake." Loki breathed, looking down sullenly. This brought a pause to their exchange. The black haired man continued though, gaze still down. "If it weren't for your plan of escape, we would not be here today. I am grateful for it, thus I repaid you by not ending your life. If that is not a suitable enough payment, then I will owe you another deed along with whatever you ask of me in return for a few days lodging. Please, I beg of you to at least consider my proposal."

Tony blinked when Loki finally looked up and locked his emerald gaze with his. It reminded him so much of that day almost a year ago. The day when they had last locked eyes, when Loki's hands were wrapped around his neck. He remembered forcing all his hatred, all his determination into his eyes. And in turn Loki was a sea of depression and regret.

"You...must be truly desperate to come to me for help." Tony said slowly. He watched the frost giant flinch violently, as if he somehow heard that sentence before. Of course what Tony didn't know, was that he had said the same words before too.

"I am." he looked skittish. "But you're the only thing _I have, _Stark."

"The closest you have to a friend."

"Precisely."

"You're pathetic." Tony didn't even sugar coat it. It wasn't part of his character description. Loki just stared. "Fine. You can stay here for the rest of the holiday season actually, but JARVIS is going to be stalking you 24/7."

"Thank you." Loki said simply.

"Take any empty room you want. Stay far away from mine and the workshop. Don't expect any Christmas presents either."

* * *

It was probably the worse decision Tony had made all year, but he didn't really care. He was too busy laying on the couch with a bottle of jack and a few chick-flics on his screen tv. It'd been several hours since he allowed Loki to stay and so far he hadn't seen much of him which was good. The frost giant was bipolar as fuck; Tony was happy he didn't have to deal with him. Instead he could focus on recovering from his break up. He had asked JARVIS to order him cookies an hour ago and was waiting for the delivery.

Instead of some under payed employee delivering them though, Loki was the one to make an appearance. He approached Tony with the box, walking as if they were bestest pals. Tony looked up with a start and gingerly took the box. He sniffed at them with narrowed eyes.

"Uhm, thanks. Really." Tony opened them up, and added as a joke, "Trying to poison me now?"

"For goodness sakes," Loki snarled. Ah. There was the abrupt change in mood that Tony was expecting. "If I wanted you dead, your corpse would be under the Statue of Liberty by now without me putting a single finger on you!"

"Calm down Loko," Tony said and offered him a cookie.

With a glare, he took one and began to walk over to the bar. Tony twisted around to watch carefully, still not convinced Loki would set up some type of death trap or something. He was obviously in a mood to do so now. But the black haired man seemed to have calmed down already. Instead of rubbing the counter with arsenic, Loki magicked a pair of small shoes out of some plane of existence. Picking them up with just a finger hooked to each, he placed them side-by-side on the counter. By now, Tony was walking towards him, curiosity spiked.

Loki moved over to the kitchen and dug around his fridge for a few moments. Satisfied after a while, he stepped back with carrots and lettuce in his hands (the only vegetables in the fridge and they had belonged to Pepper). He washed them, chopped them in half, then slowly stuffed them in each shoe. Tony quirked an eyebrow at this and finally asked, "What are you doing, Rudolph?"

"Preparing for Santa." Loki snorted as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe. "A Midgardian custom I'm sure you're familiar with."

"Uhm..." Tony said, not sure what to say first. Should he explain that Santa is just some jolly fellow Earthlings invented for children? Or should he start with asking why he thought stuffing children's shoes with vegetables was appropriate. He settled for the latter, not wanting to burst his bubble. "Why the shoes? In America, we hang up stockings over the fireplace. Prepare milk and cookies. Make out under mistletoe. That sort of thing."

"I have done my research and was informed that preparing a snack for reindeer was customary and a preferred method." Loki sniffed. "But if it pleases you, we can resort to your more barbaric methods of welcoming the saint into your home. I recommend you simply open the door for him instead of resorting to giving him entrance through a chimney."

Tony couldn't help but laugh and just nodded. He really didn't want to, but he couldn't help but like him somewhat. Loki was entertaining, like Steve was in a way, and was now a welcome distraction. He still wore the bracelets around his wrists though, because hey Tony was still paranoid, but relaxed somewhat. Loki was in his debt now right? He figured he was safe for the rest of the holiday season.

"Well, we have cookies," Tony said, ignoring Loki protests how getting a man fat would not benefit his sleigh ride. "So we need stockings. When he comes, he'll use his magic to give us gifts."

"I'm aware," Loki nodded, believing every word about magic. Tony understood why Loki would believe in Santa though. Loki was magical himself.

"Come on. We're going shopping."

* * *

That night they stayed up sipping hot chocolate and chatting idly about whatever came to mind. They decided to ignore what happened between them before and instead focused on pop culture. Tony was eager to show Loki Christmas movies while the dark-haired man hung up lights, set up a tree, and hung the stockings against an electric fireplace. Tony had bought them custom made ones (all he had to do was wave some couple hundred dollar bills and people were willing to make them as quick as possible). Tony's had his suits embroidered all over it along with his name in pretty cursive. Loki's sported a Rudolph prancing around along with the rest of Santa's team. It was really too cute.


End file.
